Bush tour: Local reaction

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Rancho Bernardo:

Kimber Fowler, 20, was one of the first who spoke to President Bush at the Rancho Bernardo service center, tears streaming from her eyes. Fowler, a student at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, found out Monday that her home in the Trails neighborhood of Rancho Bernardo had burned down and jumped on a plane.

‘I told [the president] I was from Baylor [near the president’s home in Crawford] and he said he was praying for my family,’ Fowler said. ‘He said, so you’re a fighting Baylor Bear,’ Fowler said, referring to the school’s mascot.

‘I was just going to shake his hand, and he gave me a hug, and I just fell apart because it made it real,’ Fowler said.

‘He wasn’t just hugging her, he had his arms around her,’ said Brenda Fowler, Kimber’s mother, while pointing at a picture she captured on her camera. ‘It was like a father comforting a child.’

Kimber Fowler said the service center had helped her family’s spirits.

‘I’ve been collecting Christmas bears since I was born in 1987, and a woman gave us two Christmas bears so we could start over,’ Fowler said, pointing to the male and female white bears dressed in blue.

‘This brought me to tears,’ she said. ‘We’re devastated and we cry and things, but it’s the hospitality that makes us cry the most. My family can feel the prayers of 1,000 people around the U.S.’

-- Tami Abdollah